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Some Difficulties of the 
Transportation Business 


Address 2 1916 

3 MBMISSIo* IMtfMt j 

to the 

Chamber of Commerce of 
Ansonia, Conn. 

by 

HOWARD ELLIOTT 

M 

Chairman of the Board and President 
of 

The New York, New Haven & Hartford 
Railroad Company 


German Hall, Ansonia, Conn. 
April 4, 1916 






h U £65* 

copyz 


Mr. President, Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. Mayor and Members 
of the Ansonia Chamber of Commerce: 

One of the pleasant things about work on a railway 
is getting away from the office, from the desk, where all 
difficulties center every day and where you have a 
picture of the countless problems of a complicated system 
like the New Haven. It is a great pleasure as well as an 
inspiration to the officers of the company to meet the 
business men in the communities the company is trying 
to serve and as many of the patrons of the company 
as possible. It has been a regret to me and to many 
of our officers that the storm and stress of the last two 
and a half years since I came to the property have been 
so great that it has been difficult to get about on 
many trips of inspection. These trips are productive, 
I think, of good results in bringing those who are try¬ 
ing to give service in closer contact with those who re¬ 
ceive service; so it is a pleasure for the officers who are 
with me and for me to be with you to-night. 

Mr. Drew, Vice-President of your organization, wrote 
me a week or so ago and asked if I would come, and I 
found my engagements such that I could. I was glad 
indeed to have an opportunity to come into the Nau¬ 
gatuck Valley to spend an afternoon and evening here; 
I am going on north to-morrow morning. He then wrote 
and asked what would be the subject of my remarks. I 
replied that I would talk about some of the difficulties 
confronting the transportation business. 

Now, as your toastmaster has said, your patience has 
been and is even now sorely tried and you know from 
daily experiences some of the difficulties confronting the 
transportation business. As you are all busy men, you 
have trials and tribulations in your own affairs and per¬ 
haps you do not give sufficient thought to some of our 
difficulties; or to some of the forces now at work which 

2 

By tmuBfo* 

AUG 18 1916 


& 


make it hard to cure those difficulties. As the subject is 
vital to the welfare of the United States, the welfare of 
New England and the welfare of the Naugatuck Valley, 
and to every manufacturer in it, I thought it might be of 
interest to speak of it. 

The Great To begin with, we know that up to 

Business Boom. less than a year ago business through¬ 

out the United States was not very 
good. We had many idle freight cars all over the United 
States. We had many idle engines. We had many men 
unemployed and committees in various cities were asking 
employers of labor to give employment to men. Many 
of us felt, I know I did, business would improve, but 
many made the mistake that perhaps I made—we did 
not realize it would improve as fast as it has. Even 
as late as the first of August last, only eight months 
ago, the New Haven Road had 200 engines in apple-pie 
order, laid up in what we call white lead on side tracks 
with nothing to do. Then this business, this wonderful 
business started. One hundred million people of the 
United States had been stimulated in their activities by 
the demand for so-called war materials. Then, too, the 
shelves of countless storehouses all over the country 
had become depleted of all kinds of goods. The buy¬ 
ing power of 100,000,000 people started, and this busy 
New England, filled with manufacturing enterprises, 
began to receive orders. In this valley, which, as your 
toastmaster says, is one of the busiest of its size in 
the world, the acceleration of business was perhaps 
greater than in any other part of New England. 
Knowing I was to come here, I had figures com¬ 
piled typical of this remarkable business growth, and 
fortunately for me the man who compiled the figures 
linked Ansonia and Derby together, so I cannot draw a 
comparison between the two. (Laughter.) 

The tonnage for January, which is simply a typical 
month for the two places, increased 76 per cent, over 
January a year ago, the tonnage of Naugatuck increased 


3 


85 per cent., Seymour 147 per cent., Union City 39 per 
cent., Beacon Falls 110 per cent., or an increase of 

86 per cent, for the group of points in which you are 
directly interested. That was a tremendous uplift in 
business development. The railway struggled to meet it 
but it met with some of the difficulties you have met in 
your business. It has had labor troubles; we have had 
only thirty-four strikes since August 24—not very many, 
but quite a number. We have had very unusual weather 
conditions, and, as our business is outdoor business, these 
unusual weather conditions have diminished the efficiency 
of our machine. We had in the ninety-one days begin¬ 
ning December 1 and ending February 29, fifty-eight 
that were either snowy, stormy or foggy. A foggy day on 
the New Haven Road, while it does not always trouble 
you in the Naugatuck Valley, has a direct effect on the 
volume of our business, because it checks everything in 
New York Harbor and that backs up all along the line. 
The snowfall especially has been very unusual. In the 
four months beginning with December there have been 
seventy-four inches in this part of the State; out 
around Poughkeepsie there were more and up in the 
Pittsfield country very much more. We have had the 
same trouble you have had in getting proper fuel and 
enough of it; and we have had, as I have pointed out, 
various labor troubles. We have had inadequate facili¬ 
ties, as you well know, and so have you. 

Freight The record for the month of March, 

Congestion in which has just closed, shows in this part 
Naugatuck of the Naugatuck Valley that we had a 

Valley. daily average of 131 cars of freight 

placed ready for unloading by the own¬ 
ers of freight, and the average number unloaded each day 
by the owners was but 44 cars, which indicates that you 
too, had difficulties with your labor, with your teams and 
with your machinery in getting the freight taken out of 
the cars so that the cars could go on their way— 
taking out the finished product for you and bringing back 


4 


raw materials. Now, this great growth of business was 
not confined to the Naugatuck Valley, for at New Haven 
there was a growth of 74 per cent., at Bridgeport 54 per 
cent, and at Waterbury 81 per cent. I mention these three 
points because if they become crowded and unloading is 
slow it at once affects you. As a result of these condi¬ 
tions, our service either passenger or freight has not been 
up to the mark. We feel as badly about this as anybody, 
perhaps more so, because it tends to reflect upon us, and 
yet the obstacles have been almost insurmountable. Out 
of this trouble let us hope profitable lessons may be 
learned. 

One lesson is that the owner of the freight should 
realize, if he wants the maximum amount of use of the 
railway,—he must do his part in relieving the railway of 
freight when it comes to the point where it is to be dis¬ 
charged. On the New Haven Road, as a whole, for the 
month of March, we had placed each day for unloading 
approximately 13,000 cars. Some days the number was 
as low as 11,813, and the highest figures for any one day 
in that month were 13,905; that is, freight belonging to 
you and others all over Connecticut, Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts, for your men and your teams to take 
away to your factories, warehouses, etc. The unloading 
during the month mentioned—the highest for any one 
day was 4,600 cars and the lowest 3,609; you see, from 
30 to 40 per cent., not quite 40 per cent., was unloaded. 
Well, that is a very uneconomical way for you and for 
the railway to do this enormous business, and it can only 
be cured in two ways: first, by the railway having better 
facilities, and, second, by you having better facilities. 


A Record of Let me give you a few figures for March 

Loading and 31 from a daily report made up for a 

Unloading. special committee of Railway Presidents 

in New York, of which I happen to be 
one, and for a subcommittee which is composed of 
Interstate Commerce Commissioner E. E. Clark, Mr. 
Campbell, a Vice-President of the New Haven Company, 


5 


and Mr. Casey, an officer of the Lackawanna Road. These 
three and this committee of railway presidents are try¬ 
ing to get the maximum use out of all railways east of 
Buffalo and Pittsburgh. They take all reports of con¬ 
gestion and delays and consider them every day in New 
York from nine in the morning until six in the evening. 
They have about twenty-five inspectors traveling over the 
territory mentioned to find out where the trouble is lo¬ 
cated. This report is made up for each road, and par¬ 
ticularly for this New England section, where, because 
of the great inrush of raw material, there has been very 
serious congestion. At New Haven, for example, on that 
day there were: 

410 cars ready to be unloaded; 

242 unloaded. 

At Bridgeport: 

292 ready to he unloaded; 

189 -unloaded. 

At Hartford: 

436 ready to be unloaded; 

163 unloaded. 

At Waterbury: 

336 ready to be unloaded; 

181 unloaded. 

At New Britain: 

108 ready to be unloaded; 

73 unloaded. 

At Springfield: 

134 ready to be unloaded; 

33 unloaded. 

At Ansonia: 

119 ready to be unloaded; 

38 unloaded. 

At Holyoke: 

141 ready to be unloaded; 

61 unloaded. 

At Danbury: 

82 ready to be unloaded; 

59 unloaded. 


6 


At Torrington: 

126 ready to be unloaded; 

34 unloaded. 

At Willimantic: 

38 ready to be unloaded; 

37 unloaded. 

At Boston: 

854 ready to be unloaded; 

371 unloaded. 

At Providence: 

2,000 ready to be unloaded; 

832 unloaded. 

At Worcester: 

195 ready to be unloaded; 

149 unloaded. 

At New Bedford: 

251 ready to be unloaded; 

53 unloaded. 

At Fall River: 

100 ready to be unloaded; 

100 unloaded. 

At Putnam: 

73 ready to be unloaded; 

43 unloaded. 

At Framingham: 

51 ready to be unloaded; 

44 unloaded. 

At Norwich: 

66 ready to be unloaded; 

50 unloaded. 

In other words, except at one or two points, nowhere 
near the number of cars placed ready for unloading 
were released—which shows a gap in the ability of the 
owners of the freight to unload cars. There is, as I 
say, a lesson to be learned from this difficult situation. 
It is, not only must railway facilities be increased, but 
also must the storehouse facilities and the handling fa¬ 
cilities of the merchant and manufacturer be increased. 


7 


The Providence Journal, commenting on the situation, 
recently had quite a strong editorial and I will read part 
of it because it well sets forth the facts. Among other 
things the editorial said: 

“In parts of New England to-day industries are 
threatened with closure for want of raw material, 
live stock faces starvation for lack of fodder, coal is 
likely to be quoted at a distressing price on account 
of the inability of the railroads to help the limited 
vessel tonnage, and appeals to the shipping public to 
release freight cars fall on deaf ears. The consignee 
pays a dollar a day a car for demurrage and acts as 
if that relieved him of his share of responsibility for 
the freight congestion. With stocks of every neces¬ 
sity of life that must be brought into New England 
depleted by the embargoes and blockades, the rail¬ 
road and the public also face the threat of the great¬ 
est and most complete railroad strike in history. 

“Practically all the freight that comes to the New 
Haven Road from its connections must be given ter¬ 
minal service and ends its journey on that system. 
It must furnish yard room, and if the consignee fails 
to unload it the road can do no more than charge a 
dollar a day a car unless the Interstate Commerce 
Commission permits an increase in the rate. ’ 7 

We had one case, I am sorry to say it was at Provi¬ 
dence, where an owner held ninety cars of freight on the 
track for eighty-nine days and paid a dollar a day, but 
that sum didn’t reimburse the railway nor reimburse you 
for the misuse of those cars. One case in Connecticut was 
where 300 cars of coal were brought in, bought on specu¬ 
lation and disposed of at the rate of three a day. These 
things are very bad, they hurt you and they hurt every 
shipper in New England. Another case the special com¬ 
mittee has just taken up, was where three cars of auto¬ 
mobiles, billed order notify, were held for a total of 
138 days, one car being held as long as eighty-four days. 
This misuse of railway facilities does harm all the time 


8 


and yet, as I say, out of this difficult situation we may be 
able to learn a lesson which will help us for all time to 
come. 

Problems of Now, you gentlemen are in the manufac- 
Railways and turing business and have many diffi- 

Manufacturers. culties similar to ours. You, perhaps, do 

not think of us as in the manufacturing 
business, and yet we are. We are manufacturing a 
diversified product, transportation, which is scattered 
over considerable territory and subject to many of the 
conflicting forces that your business is subject to. But 
we cannot store up our product as you can. We had 
any quantity of manufacturing ability last July to pro¬ 
duce transportation, for, as I have said, we Had 200 
engines in apple-pie order with nothing to do, but we 
couldn’t make transportation, put it away and have it 
ready for you this winter; and this transportation ma¬ 
chine of ours is now out of gear and it is out of gear be¬ 
cause our product is not getting a price commensurate 
with the cost of production. It would be well for you who 
depend so largely on the adequacy of the transportation 
product to think of our situation. No doubt you have, but 
it is so important a subject that I want especially to bring 
it to your attention. 

Heavy Increase in In 1907 the Interstate Commerce Corn- 
Transportation mission adopted a uniform set of ac- 
Output. counts for the railways of the United 

States, so that they could make com¬ 
parisons on the same basis, and these accounts are sub¬ 
ject to the inspection of the Commission and must be 
sworn to by a responsible officer of the railway com¬ 
pany. We have every reason to believe that they are 
correct. For the year ending June 30, 1915, the railways 
of the United States manufactured of the product they 
sell, measured in the units we use, 66,000,000,000 more ton 
miles than they did in the year ending June 30, 1907 ; 66,- 
000,000,000 tons hauled one mile more in 1915 than in the 


9 


year ending Jnne 30, 1907! That increase was thirty- 
three times as much as the entire ton mileage handled by 
the New Haven system. And the railways of the 
country increased during the same period their pas¬ 
senger transportation output 4,000,000,000 passengers, 
[hauled one mile, which is three times as much as 
the annual passenger transportation product of the 
New Haven. The owners of the railways in the 
United States, in order to furnish that product to 
the people, put into the plant, $4,800,000,000—nearly $5,- 
000,000,000 new money for additional tracks, new build¬ 
ings, etc., for the period mentioned. Before they put 
in the $4,800,000,000 the owners had $760,000,000 left, 
after paying expenses and taxes, for betterments and im¬ 
provements and for a return on their investment. After 
putting the $4,800,000,000 into the plant in order to fur¬ 
nish the United States this additional transportation pro¬ 
duct they had $739,000,000 left, or $21,000,000 less than 
nearly ten years before. This presents a very important 
situation to the country and to all who must have the 
transportation product for the success of their business. 
As business men, you know that people will not continue 
to put money into any business if they get no return on it, 
and this is one of the reasons to-day why railway facilities 
throughout the United States are inadequate; why your 
coal is not coming in as fast as you want it, and why your 
product is not going out promptly. It isn’t only a New 
England matter. It is a national situation. 

As your toastmaster said, the difficulties here in New 
England have been accentuated by various happenings 
of which the papers have spoken much during the last 
few years. But apart from those matters the inadequacy 
of railway facilities is a national problem. The great 
Pennsylvania Railroad, which has not had some of the 
troubles of the New Haven, also has had trouble in mov¬ 
ing its business. It has to-day on its rails nearly 10,000 
cars of freight for points on the New Haven Road, 
which we are ready to take. We have for the time lifted 
the embargoes and yet the Pennsylvania is having diffi- 


10 


culty in sorting out those 10,000 cars from the twenty or 
thirty thousand other cars on its lines and moving them 
up to the proper junction points on our lines. I repeat 
the whole subject is one of great national concern. 


The New Haven I walked and drove over the terminal 
Ought to Spend situation here to-day. Your good friend 
Millions. and my good friend, Mr. Brooker, took 

me about, and I also saw that beauti¬ 
ful town of Derby, and all the track facilities. We 
should spend a lot of money here; we know it, and we 
should spend a lot of money at many other points on the 
New Haven Road. A low estimate of what the New 
Haven Road should spend to be able to turn out a first- 
class article of transportation in New England territory 
is probably $30,000,000; more likely $50,000,000. 

I believe we are to increase our business. In the period 
from 1903 to 1914 the transportation output of the New 
Haven Road increased between 40 and 44 per cent., and 
it is going to increase in the next ten or twelve years an 
additional 30 to 40 per cent, if you and men like you, and 
the people generally throughout the United States,will see 
to it that the transportation agencies are able to increase 
their facilities; but it is going to take money and it cannot 
be done simply by one railway improving its facilities, 
because a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. If 
we should improve our lines and the New York Central 
and the Pennsylvania were blocked it would not help 
very much, or if they improved their lines and we did not 
improve ours it would not help very much. 


The New I want to say a few words about the 

labor Demands. labor situation. I told you we have had 

thirty-four strikes since the twenty- 
fourth day of August; and you have had your own labor 
troubles. The labor problem is also a great national 
problem. The New York Times on March 31 had a very 


11 


good editorial on the subject. I want to read briefly a 
part of it because it puts the situation in a very thought¬ 
ful way. It says: 

“All the money a railroad takes in is for passen¬ 
ger and ton miles. A railroad does not sell its trains; 
it sells only their capacity. What it gets from the 
passengers and tons, which occupy that capacity, is 
out of its control entirely. Rates are made by State 
laws or by the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
Unable to control its income the railroad has all the 
greater reason to look to the cost of its train miles— 
that is, to the control of its outgo. If it should lose 
control of its outgo, having already lost control of its 
income, it would obviously be in a parlous condition, 
but exactly that is taking place. 

“The largest factor of cost in the production of 
train miles is wages and it is becoming altogether 
uncontrollable. The men engaged in train service de¬ 
mand with increasing frequency more pay for less 
time under threat of going on strike. They are per¬ 
suaded at the last moment to accept arbitration, and 
invariably the matter is compromised. The men get 
less than they demanded, but more than the railroads 
were willing to give. Less than two years ago that 
last occurred. Now 400,000 men are again threaten¬ 
ing the companies with a calamity that cannot be al¬ 
lowed to happen, and in order to prevent the rail¬ 
roads from putting in counter-proposals, as they did 
in 1914, the unions lay down flatly that only the pro¬ 
posals which they themselves present are open to dis¬ 
cussion. Any that the railroads may wish to present 
are declared beforehand to be undeserving of consid¬ 
eration by the unions. It seems necessary to re-state 
these simple facts in order to bring the situation into 
perspective. Let us look at it in a sense of formal 
fairness, waiving all the merits. A combination of 
400,000 men deliberately menaces the comfort, safety 
and general well-being of society, in order to get 


12 


more pay and then would limit the discussion to the 
very point of its demands. The railroads say ‘we 
want to be heard on questions touching the fairness 
of existing rates, rules and conditions of labor in the 
railway service.’ The unions say ‘rates, rules and 
conditions not specifically affected by our present 
demands shall remain unchanged, they are not open 
to discussion.’ What can the railroads do? They 
cannot strike. There is no court, no tribunal where 
they may get a hearing and obtain relief. They can¬ 
not reduce wages, equalize them or control them at 
all. The employees control wages, subject to arbitra¬ 
tion, in which they always win something. 

“In the circumstances, if you were a railroad 
what would you do ? You would wish no doubt to sell 
not only your ton and passenger miles, but your 
trains as well, but that you couldn’t do. One of the 
many things a railroad cannot do is to liquidate and 
quit. If you were a railroad you would do perhaps 
as the railroads do. You would do the best you 
could.” 


We cannot wind up our business, we cannot give it up, 
we are here to serve you and we must have your help. It 
is not a question just now of whether the men are getting 
too much or too little; it is a great problem of national 
importance whether this transportation factory can go 
on and manufacture the product you must have if you 
are to increase your output. If it is fair and right to 
raise the compensation of those 400,000 men 25 per cent., 
who is to say that it is not equally fair and right to raise 
the compensation of the 1,200,000 or 1,400,000 other men 
in the railway service, and who can justly say they are not 
equally deserving? A 25 per cent, increase in the payrolls 
of the railways of the United States would put many of 
them into bankruptcy and would stop all additions nec¬ 
essary to the plant if it is to give you the product you 
must have. In this connection I believe thoughtful con- 


13 


sideration should be given to the selection of men to 
public office, to commissions and to the legislatures. 

Duty to Perhaps it is not unnatural for you to 

Investors. say this matter is not our business, but 

rather is it the business of the rail¬ 
way managements to attend to the problems confronting 
them. What is the management of a railway? The 
railway, as I say, is a great big piece of machinery 
created by thousands of people. Take the New Haven 
Road as an example. About 28,000 stockholders 
and probably 20,000 bondholders, or at least 45,000 in¬ 
dividuals own that great manufacturing plant. They 
hope, as do you in your manufacturing plants for a re¬ 
turn on their product. They select a board of directors 
to manage the property, and the board has to meet many 
conflicting forces. The directors have the interest of the 
owners at heart, and the owners are entitled to some re¬ 
turn on their investment. If the owners are note holders 
or bond holders they are entitled to their interest and to 
the safeguarding of their investment and if they are 
stockholders they are like your stockholders in the manu¬ 
facturing business—they hope for a dividend. The 
directors and management must try to furnish the trans¬ 
portation, and they have as well, a duty to the employee. 

It is a trying time in the world just now. All business 
is surrounded by conflicting forces, as well as the country 
at large. It seems at times very difficult for us to say 
what any one man or group of men can do with these 
large business questions confronting the nation. 

I have a little quotation which I keep on my desk at 
home because it always appeals to me; something that 
Mr. Huxley said. It is no doubt familiar to many of you, 
but it emphasizes the point I am trying to make regard¬ 
ing the great forces now at work and of the great game in 
which we are all engaged. 

Mr. Huxley said: 

“The life, the fortune and the happiness of every 
one of us and more or less of those who are connected 


14 


with us do depend upon our knowing something of 
the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and com¬ 
plicated than chess. It is a game which has been 
played for untold ages, every man or woman of us 
being one of two players in a game of his or her own. 
The chess board is the world, the pieces the phe¬ 
nomena of the universe, the rules of the game are 
what we call the laws of nature, the player on the 
other side is hidden from us. We know that his play 
is always fair, just and patient. But also we know 
to our cost that he never overlooks a mistake or 
makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the 
man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with 
that sort of overflowing generosity which the strong 
shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is 
checkmated without haste, but without remorse.” 

We are all trying to play that game, but all are 
human and make mistakes. The directors, the offi¬ 
cers, myself and the officers associated with me, the junior 
officers all down the line—I honestly believe are trying to 
do the best they can with the great difficulties confront¬ 
ing them. The task in which they are engaged cannot be 
solved unless we have a better public opinion concerning 
the railway business, a public opinion that is the result 
of thoughtful, careful, prudent study. With the help of 
a public opinion so framed I believe we can solve these 
problems; but if we cannot solve them I am fearful that 
we will have more difficulties before we get out of the 
woods. 

Commissioner As I have said, I call our business a great 
Daniels on a manufacturing business, similar in many 
living Wage. respects to yours. Mr. Daniels, one of 
the members of the Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission, has said a good and perfectly obvious 
thing, namely, that the railway is entitled to a living 
wage; in other words, the laborer is worthy of his hire. 


15 


Mr. Daniels, in the so-called 5 per cent, rate case, made 
an excellent statement as to the absolute necessity of 
supporting the railways if they are to serve the public 
as the public should be served. He said: 


4 4 The world-wide phenomenon of rising prices is 
by this time no novelty. Since 1906 the average rise 
in the world’s price level is estimated by competent 
statisticians at from 30 per cent, to 50 per cent. It 
has mirrored itself in the rising cost of living; it has 
evoked, and most properly, advance in wages and 
salaries, it has coincided with an increase in the nom¬ 
inal rate of interest, where part of the interest so- 
called is but compensation for the anticipated depre¬ 
ciation of the capital sum later to be repaid. This 
rise in the price level must eventually be reckoned 
with in railroading. For a time its effects may be 
masked by adventitious increases in the volume of 
traffic, but this temporary relief in its very nature is 
uncertain, and sooner or later the difficulty is sure to 
reappear. For a time it may be circumvented by 
extraordinary economies, but in its nature it is in¬ 
exorable. It must be faced, not trifled with. It is 
hardly an adequate remedy to accord to carriers 
relief only when their returns have reached the well- 
nigh desperate level now shown in central freight 
association territory. Even before this inadequate 
return was evidenced higher rates were warranted. 
Such a solution of the present case would have done 
no less than justice to the carriers and would have 
promoted the welfare of the community they serve. 

“A living wage is as necessary for a railroad as 
for an individual. A carrier without a sufficient 
return to cover costs and obtain in addition a margin 
of profit large enough to attract new capital for ex¬ 
tensions and improvements cannot permanently 
render service commensurate with the needs of the 
public. ’ ’ 


16 


Big Increase We have been confronted with very 
in Prices of large increases in the prices paid for 
R. R. Materials, materials since the Commission’s last 
freight rate opinion. 

A short time ago the St. Louis and San Francisco 
Railway made a careful compilation of the cost of thirty- 
six classes of materials the company used. I take it their 
figures would probably not be very far out of the way 
of those of other railways. They found that the thirty- 
six classes of materials they had to use in the manufac¬ 
ture of their product showed increases in cost of from 80 
to 700 per cent, over two years ago. Of course, the 700 
per cent, item was for a special article, but let us sup¬ 
pose the average increase to be 25 or 30 per cent. We all 
know there have been marked increases in the prices of 
railway materials. 

Passenger Train Let me give you some very simple 

Service at a Loss, figures as to the passenger service of 
the New Haven Road. Your passenger 
service, as I know to my sorrow, has not been satisfactory 
and yet it is not remunerative to the railway—very little 
of it is, but it is necessary for the general development of 
the whole territory. For the eight months ending Febru¬ 
ary 29 the passenger trains running on the New Haven 
Road earned $2.22 per mile. That was one of the highest 
average earnings per train mile in the United States. 
The New Haven is a great carrier of passengers, and 
those who do not study railway figures would say that 
that record was fine, and we were making lots of money. 
But let me remind you that the average cost of running 
all the trains for the same eight months was exactly $2.22 
per train mile. The average cost of passenger train 
service, eliminating all questions of maintenance and 
applying only what we call transportation costs, station 
service, engine service, train service, is $1.21; but we 
must remember that the passenger trains are wearing out 
the railway just as much as the freight trains; and the 
equipment must be kept in order, and more and better 


17 


cars must be purchased. The February earnings per pas¬ 
senger train mile were $2.14, and the average expenses 
$2.46. 

It would seem as if you must face and we must face, 
if we are to go on adding to our plant in such a way that 
we can produce a better quality of transportation and in 
greater quantity, some increase in rates. Perhaps if 
the weather improves and things clear up somewhat our 
expenses will not seem so appalling; but you must re¬ 
member we have to pay higher prices for fuel and all 
materials and continued large increases in wages; and I 
cannot see any way out except by an increase in rates 
unless New England is to be satisfied with a postpone¬ 
ment of improvements for perhaps an indefinite period. I 
hope we will not have to do that, because there is so much 
to be done to make our plant satisfactory. 


Railways Need In the country there are many move- 
Help of the ments. We have agricultural con- 

People. gresses, good roads congresses and up¬ 

lift congresses. There are all sorts of 
movements in the interest of the public welfare, and yet 
there is not enough thought given by the public at large 
to the very serious transportation problem. It needs not 
only the help of the thousands of men in the railway 
service, but it needs the help of the people. I know many 
of the railway men, and I think that 99.9 per cent, are 
animated by a high purpose to serve not only their 
railways but to do their duty to the public. The railways 
are your servants. All the money they collect comes 
from you and in return most of it is passed right back to 
the New England communities in payment of wages and 
taxes and for materials. The great bulk of the money 
collected goes right back to the New England people 
except the money spent for coal and certain metallic 
articles. We must have a living return. If we don’t have 
it we cannot add to our plant; we cannot give you what 
you want and that is going to hurt us all. 


18 


I have tried to point out some of our difficulties. They 
are not unusual; similar difficulties confront you, but 
you are able to meet them because you can and do raise 
the price of your product. At the present time the rail¬ 
ways need great forbearance and much help if they are 
really and truly to push the country forward to bear the 
great burdens of the business onrush imposed by the con¬ 
ditions of the foreign war. 


High Type of I am glad to have an opportunity to come 
New Haven’s Men. here and say this much to you. It is, as I 
have already remarked, helpful to us who 
are at headquarters much of the time to get about and 
meet our patrons face to face. "We try to have on guard all 
over our road honest men, high-minded men, men of 
capacity, men of sincerity. I believe in the men we have, 
the 36,000 men on this great railway. There are some, 
of course, who are no more perfect than those in 
other walks of life. We know we have our shortcomings 
and we wish we could overcome them. There are only 
about 100 officers and we have several million cus¬ 
tomers, but, as I say, we try to have the men at 
stations and on the divisions do the best they can with 
the facilities with which they are furnished. You had 
here for a long time Mr. Judson as agent. He did good 
work for you and for the railway. He was finally worn 
out and has been retired on a pension. Mr. McArthur 
is a zealous, active man, trying to please you. His head 
and heart want to do it, but he cannot always accom¬ 
plish all that you desire. And you have Mr. Casey, the 
yardmaster; he wants to do the best he can; and Mr. 
Moran, the ticket man; all want to do the best they can. 
They want to bring all complaints to their superior, Mr. 
Miller, and he in turn submits them to Mr. Droege, and 
so on up to the management. 

Our ability to improve the service is limited by the 
money question. We must have earnings and we must 
have credit to bolster us up so that we can add to our 


19 


V 


facilities. We have been through a stormy time to save 
the company from what seemed at one time almost certain 
dissolution. 

I am glad always to have an opportunity to talk to a 
body of business men like the Ansonia Chamber of Com¬ 
merce. I think the railway problems to-day are more im¬ 
portant in their ultimate effect upon the future of this 
country than was the silver question which was fought 
so effectively in 1896, and with this in mind let me 
ask you to consider the seriousness of the railway situa¬ 
tion and to do what you can with your members of the 
Legislature, your Senators, your members of the House, 
your Railway Commissioners, and your government to 
point out some of the great difficulties confronting all 
business, and particularly the transportation business. 
They cannot be cured by the railway managements alone 
—the cure must come through the joint action of the 
railway managements and the great public that the rail¬ 
way managements are honestly trying to serve. 



20 


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